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Thursday, April 23, 2009
Too Good Not To Be True!
Psalm 133; John 20:19-31
"Doubting Thomas" we call him. Now, how would you like to be remembered throughout history? What adjective do you hope for? And suppose that one word stood for just one thing you did or said just one time in your whole life?
Thomas's one-time one thing, I think, was not so much skepticism as it was realism.
Sure, he did say, "I don't believe Jesus is alive again. I won't believe it! It's just too good to be true!"
But after all, he hadn't been there when Jesus showed up to sit a while with the disciples in that locked room on Easter evening. Not one of them had been expecting Jesus to be up and doing visitation, after they'd seen him die on a cross a couple days earlier.
So of course he was holding out for hard evidence. "Let me see him for myself, touch his wounds with my own hands!" Call it the scientific method.
And so, one week later, Jesus showed up again. This time Thomas was on hand. And the story took a most surprising turn.
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posted by Jack Buckley at
11:07 AM
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Too Good To Last?
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Mark 11:1-11
We call it the "triumphal entry," the little parade into Jerusalem that Sunday long ago with Jesus playing the role of Grand Marshal. As if he were a conquering hero returning from battle, surrounded with the spoils of war, to the accolades of thronging crowds.
Except that Jesus came riding into town that day on a young donkey, a modest equestrian choice, symbolically announcing without a word that his kingdom was one of peace. Oh, his disciples and other folks certainly treated his ride royally, shouting out praise and waving palm branches, laying them down along with their cloaks like a red carpet of honor.
The parade route led from the city gate to the entrance of the Temple, God's royal palace in King David's holy city. There, Mark tells us, Jesus stood stock still, slowly looked around, and quietly took in the scene. Silently sizing things up, he turned around and walked away until another day.
Mark's Gospel is the shortest of the four, very direct in its language and majoring in a just-the-facts story telling style. Here, with no editorial elaboration, he gives us the sense that Jesus knew on Sunday the horrors he would have to endure on Thursday night and Friday morning.
His no-nonsense realism told him all this triumph stuff was just too good to last.
Or was it?
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
5:34 PM
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